


shut my eyes (and you know)

by tangerinick



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But could be pre-slash, Gen, for Rainforest: A Plance zine, platonic plance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 03:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14946773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangerinick/pseuds/tangerinick
Summary: Pidge wakes up to the distorted chirping of birds.





	shut my eyes (and you know)

**Author's Note:**

> My piece for [Rainforest: a Plance Zine](http://plance-zine.tumblr.com)

Pidge wakes up to the distorted chirping of birds.

Well, technically Pidge wakes up with a head that throbs only a little less worse than the one after they stole a bunch of Coran's nunvil, but those are details.

For a minute it's a bit confusing as Pidge tries to place her surroundings by sound alone. The bird noises—a chorus of high and low, shorts chirps and long warbles—are slightly warped. She's curled into an upright foetal position, slouched into a large, comfortable chair that feels cool under her cheek.

There's a very loud, very heartfelt internal ugh as Pidge stretches out, joints cracking. She rubs her hands into her eyes, clearing out the sleep, then opens them a slit. Bright light pours into her eyes and she squints them shut again.

"Green? Where are we?"

Green doesn’t respond. The presence of another mind that has grown so comfortable is gone, leaving behind a void that makes her own head feel empty and quiet.

“Green?” Still no answer. Pidge quickly opens her eyes, something akin to panic building up in her throat.

Her hands tremble when she goes to check the dashboard. Fortunately, the holograph lights up in a flickering flash, but the only thing Pidge can see is a message in Altean. When she tries to swipe the message away, the whole screen freezes. From the broken Altean Pidge knows, there’s something wrong with Green. But she knew that already.

Pidge remembers flashes of light, the screaming of the other paladins. A wormhole pulling them apart. Then a blank.

For a second, Pidge feels undeniably alone. Green is silent, and Pidge doesn’t know what happened to the rest, if they’re okay or if they’re looking for her. And on top of all that, she has no clue where she is. Pidge is truly, truly lost.

“Deep breath,” Pidge mutters. Her only option is to go outside. Hopefully she can find something—or someone—that might help.

Pidge ends up having to manually open Green with a lever hidden somewhere behind a hatch. Instead of the usual smooth hiss, there’s a lot of loud creaking until it thwacks into the heavy, spongy soil and a crack as it breaks through fallen wood.

Pidge takes off her helmet, shaking out her matted hair, then sucks in a breath of awe. The distorted view through Green's screen and the warped sound of birds have nothing on the surroundings in real life. The air is heavy, so humid it clings coolly to her hair and skin, and the smell: dark, like right after a storm, saturated with the smell of musty vegetation. Vines as thick as ropes, mossy rocks, and fallen trees create a mess of color that rustles and moves all around her like a giant cocoon. The cacophony of wildlife and dripping water is oddly calming. For a moment, Pidge can imagine there is nothing else in the universe but this. She becomes aware of the fact that she isn’t breathing, perhaps for fear of disturbing the pervasive peace on the rainforest she’s landed in.

Pidge has never seen anything like this on Earth. Her family never had the money, nor the time, for any big travels. Technically, she knows about rainforests. She had a poster of an indistinguishable rainforest on her bedroom door; she liked the color green and the incredible variation in organisms.

Patting the cool metal of Green, Pidge takes a tentative step then hesitates as she tries to remember any survival tips on how to stay alive in a rainforest from late-night Googling marathons at the Garrison.

“Step one, don’t panic,” Pidge tells herself. Well, Pidge has had a lot worse to panic about. Considering the situation, she’s pretty chill. She steadies herself against a tree.

“Cover your skin,” Pidge recalls. At least her suit still seems intact. She puts her helmet back on, just in case; no weird alien mosquitoes are gonna be able to bite her.

“Only eat food that you’re familiar with and–” Pidge thinks for a second, “–obtain water.” The food a little unhelpful, as she’s on an alien planet. Unless evolution is on Pidge’s side, she doesn’t think she’s find something similar to anything edible on Earth. Also, Pidge is pretty sure Hunk stocked all the lions with enough non-perishable food to last weeks. Same goes for obtaining water.

Pidge isn’t completely left to the elements. She has a well-equipped fighting robot lion by her side. A robot lion who seems to be taking some sort of nap.

“I’m going to explore a bit,” Pidge reasons to no one in particular, because what else does she have left to do? If she’s lucky, she’ll come across an advanced civilization (aware of other aliens, otherwise this situation could get a whole lot more dangerous) who could help her. She has a bayard, and there’s nothing to do but wait until the Castle finds her.

Pidge takes off in the direction of the sunlight filtering through the canopy. It’s fairly shaded, but when she looks up, the sharp light makes her head hurt again, even though it’s already diminished quite a lot since she woke up. Every couple of meters or so, she makes sure she’s still walking in a straight line. It doesn’t take much before she’s lost sight of Green—which is a feat upon itself, because Green is massive—but amid the impossibly high trees and confusing blur of vegetation, her lion is indistinguishable. Pidge walks for a good couple of minutes, eyes peeled for a sign of disturbance, anything alien-made amongst the forest. Sweat starts to trickle into her eyes; the heat becomes stifling.

It’s as Pidge turns around that she hears it. A soft, telltale crack of a branch. Pidge stills. Again, the soft tread of footsteps over moss. Through the buzz of ambient noise of the rainforest around her, there’s someone—or something—nearby. She takes off in the direction of Green a little faster. The footsteps seems to follow.

Later, Pidge blames it on the panic, the one thing she shouldn’t have given in to. One moment she sees a familiar tree, the weirdly shaped rock, the purple berry bush, then suddenly she’s lost, pivoting around and around. Any sense of direction is completely lost; the forest stretches out endlessly into a maze of threatening greens and brown. Her chest heaves, and she realises the sound of the footsteps have completely disappeared. Either that means she’s lost them, or—

 

Pidge screams and reaches for her bayard, ready to tase the dark shape barrelling towards her out of the corner of her eye.  

“Hey!” Lance yells out, backing away quickly, eyes wide.

“Lance!” Pidge yells back, angrily shaking her bayard. She has amazing reflexes—luckily for Lance, who wouldn’t have come out unharmed if she didn’t. “What the hell!”

They stare at each other for a moment, then Lance says; “I was happy to see you, jeez.”

“Happy? You scared the quiznak out of me!”

Lance holds his hands out placatingly. “Only because I couldn’t tell who you were!”

Pidge takes a deep breath to steady herself. “I guess I’m not the only one here, then.”

Lance laughs. “No, definitely not. Here,” Lance says. He hands her a small metal disk, cool to the touch. Pidge peers at it for a second.

“A compass?”

“Yeah. Turns out Hunk also stocked the lions with a basic survival kit, bless his heart.”

“Oh.” Pidge gives it back. “Have you had any contact with the Castle yet?”

“No.” Lance’s frown is a little dark, and Pidge can tell there’s genuine worry going on. “Blue’s pretty much silent.”

“So are Green and my bayard,” Pidge says, surprised. If both of their lions are out of commission, there’s got to be a common factor. “Do you think it was the wormhole?”

“Maybe.” Lance shrugs. “I have just about the same ideas as you. Shall we go find Green?”

“I—I don’t know where Green is.” Pidge admits, still a little bugged out. “You scared me so much I freaked out and got lost.”

Lance grins. “Blue it is, then.”

Before he can turn around to start walking, Pidge hugs him so hard she swears she feels his ribs crack.

Pidge is extremely relieved to have Lance by her side, not that she’d ever tell him that. But Lance fills the silence with mindless chatter that stops her from going out of her mind with worry about the blocked technology and the disappearing things. They set up camp and decide to wait. Pidge convinces Lance to smear his exposed skin with mud when he takes off his helmet, in case there are any alien mosquitos flying around. It’s the funniest sight she’s seen all week.

They wait, and they wait even more. They spend the night in Blue, wrapped up in blankets. In the morning, after a breakfast of dried goo and slightly stale water, Lance turns to Pidge while she attempts to fix her bayard.

“The trees...”

“What?” Pidge says, taken aback.

Lance is silent for a minute. Then he says, “I think I’m gonna try climbing up.”

Pidge blinks at him. “You’re crazy.”

“Won’t hurt to try.” Lance grins.

“You’re gonna kill yourself,” Pidge says, taking another bite of the dried goo.

“Blue doesn’t seem to be fixing herself, and this planet is driving me nuts.” Lance stands up, dusts himself off, and walks to the nearest trunk. It’s thick and sturdy, vines and moss crawling all the way up. He digs his feet in, tests his weight, then nods. “Aren’t you a little curious?”

“Maybe,” Pidge admits, “but hey, it’s your funeral.”

“Atta girl.” Lance starts to climb up, and Pidge watches with bated breath, waiting for a branch to snap or for him to lose balance and fall. Soon, he’s at a height that would have Pidge shaking in fear. Her neck aches from the angle she needs to look up. Pidge sighs and busies herself again trying to fix her bayard.

Eventually, Lance lands next to her with a thud. “Damn,” Lance says, softly. “You should see the view.”

“No thanks. I’m afraid of heights.”

“What?” Lance blinks at her.

“Afraid of heights, always been. I mean, I had to climb up some weird trunk things to get to Green, but that was more like climbing a mountain. I just—I panic at the idea of all that empty air, and what’ll happen if I let go.”

“I’d catch you, y’know.”

It’s Pidge’s turn to blink and go, “What?”

Lance’s grin is bright and a little cheeky. “If you fell. I’d catch you.”

Pidge rolls her eyes. “You’re a dork.”

Lance settles in next to her, nudging at her with his shoulder. “We’re teammates, Pidge. I got your back. I know we haven’t talked much since the Garrison—and I’m pretty sure I annoyed you too much for you to take me seriously back then—” Pidge laughs, because it’s a little true, “—but for what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re the one I’m stuck with.”

The words seem to strike her in the heart, and Pidge feels a little warmer. “Thanks,” she tells him. Lance nods in response; they don’t need more words to know she understands.

The other paladins are going to find them. They’ll be reunited. Or they’ll figure out what’s up with Green and Blue, and then they’ll leave to planet to go do—something. But whatever happens, Pidge will feel a lot less alone as long as she has Lance by her side.


End file.
